Creative Problem Solving

Farmer John lived
on a quiet rural highway. But, as time went by, the traffic slowly built up at
an alarming rate. The traffic was so heavy and so fast that his chickens were
being run over at a rate of three to six a day.

So one day Farmer
John called the sheriff's office and said, "You've got to do something
about all of these people driving so fast and killing all of my chickens."

"What do you
want me to do?" asked the sheriff.

"I don't care,
just do something about those crazy drivers!" So the next day he had the
county workers go out and erected a sign that said: SLOW--SCHOOL CROSSING

Three days later
Farmer John called the sheriff and said, "You've got to do something about
these drivers. The 'school crossing'
sign seems to make them go even faster."

So, again, the
sheriff sends out the county workers and they put up a new sign: SLOW: CHILDREN
AT PLAY

That really sped
them up. So Farmer John called and called and called every day for three weeks.
Finally, he asked the sheriff, "Your signs are doing no good. Can I put up
my own sign?"

The sheriff told
him, "Sure thing, put up your own sign." He was going to let the
Farmer John do just about anything in order to get him to stop calling everyday
to complain.

The sheriff got no
more calls from Farmer John. Three weeks later, curiosity got the best of the
sheriff and he decided to give Farmer John a call. "How's the problem with
those drivers. Did you put up your sign?"

"Oh, I sure did. And not one chicken has
been killed since then. I've got to go. I'm very busy." He hung up the
phone.

The sheriff was
really curious now and he thought to himself, "I'd better go out there and
take a look at that sign...it might be something that WE could use to slow down
drivers..."

So the sheriff
drove out to Farmer John's house, and
his jaw dropped the moment he saw the sign. It was spray-painted on a sheet of
wood:

NUDIST COLONY......GO SLOW AND WATCH OUT FOR THE
CHICKS!

Moral of the story : There are always simpler ways of fixing complex problems!